Chief Jus­tice,Ivor Archie, has ap­point­ed Ma­jor (Re­tired) Ar­den D. Williams to the Emer­gency Pow­ers Re­view Tri­bunal, re­plac­ing Kent Sam­lal.

The Tri­bunal now com­pris­es Chair­man Mr David Alexan­der, Mem­ber Ms Shiv­an­gelie Ra­moutar, and Mem­ber Ma­jor (Ret.) Williams.

The va­can­cy was re­vealed yes­ter­day as the Ju­di­cia­ry re­spond­ed to a le­gal chal­lenge over its com­po­si­tion.

Re­put­ed gang leader Ra­jaee Ali, through his lawyer Keron Ramkhal­whan of Ju­ris X Cham­bers, raised con­cerns about a mem­ber who al­so serves on a State com­pa­ny board. Ramkhal­whan sent a pre-ac­tion pro­to­col let­ter to the Tri­bunal and Chief Jus­tice Archie on Thurs­day, chal­leng­ing the Tri­bunal’s com­po­si­tion.

Ac­cord­ing to the Ju­dia­cia­ry, Ma­jor Williams has ex­ten­sive ex­pe­ri­ence over­see­ing tri­bunals in the De­fence Force. He holds a Bach­e­lor of Laws (LLB) from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Lon­don and a Le­gal Ed­u­ca­tion Cer­tifi­cate from the Hugh Wood­ing Law School. Called to the Bar of Trinidad and To­ba­go in 2013, he has prac­tised pri­vate­ly since 2016 in civ­il and crim­i­nal lit­i­ga­tion, mil­i­tary law, fam­i­ly law, and in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions.

He has ap­peared be­fore the Dis­trict Courts of Trinidad and To­ba­go and Guyana, the In­dus­tri­al Court, the Court of Ap­peal, and the Privy Coun­cil. His mil­i­tary and le­gal ex­pe­ri­ence is ex­pect­ed to strength­en the Tri­bunal’s ex­per­tise.